Practicing driving was torture for an experienced driver, especially with two weirdos sitting nearby.
Chen Zhi really had no interest in listening to the couple in the back seat flatter each other. Taking advantage of the break when they switched drivers, he said a quick word to the instructor and slipped away.
The midday sun was scorching. Chen Zhi felt an urgent need for something ice-cold to suppress the heat rising inside him.
Not far ahead was a residential neighborhood with a Lawson convenience store at the entrance.
Pushing open the glass door, a blast of cold air rushed at his face. It was so comfortable that Chen Zhi felt every pore on his body open up.
He headed straight for the freezer. Just as he was about to reach for his favorite old-fashioned popsicle, his gaze was drawn to a figure standing by the nearby shelves.
It was a girl in a white dress.
She was looking down, earnestly checking the production dates on the rice balls.
Long, straight black hair hung down to her waist, and the profile of her face was soft and gentle.
Compared to that Su Nuan back at the driving school, the girl before him was simply a fairy descended from heaven.
Chen Zhi paused for a moment, then a smile touched the corners of his lips.
What a coincidence.
He reached into the freezer, grabbed two popsicles, quietly walked up behind the girl, and gently pressed the freezing wrapper against her arm.
"Ah!"
Like a startled fawn, the girl shuddered and whipped her head around.
When she saw the buzz-cut boy behind her smiling wickedly, the panic in her eyes turned into pleasant surprise, and her tense shoulders relaxed.
"Chen... Chen Zhi?"
Li Zhiyi blinked, seemingly unable to believe she had run into him here.
"What? Don't recognize me just because I got a haircut?" Chen Zhi handed over one of the popsicles. "Here, my treat."
Li Zhiyi took the popsicle, her cheeks flushing slightly. "Th-thank you."
Chen Zhi tore open his own wrapper, took a bite, and mumbled, "No need to thank me, I haven't paid for them yet anyway."
Li Zhiyi was speechless.
She instinctively reached for her canvas bag. "Then I'll go pay..."
"Alright, I'm just messing with you." Chen Zhi grabbed her hand to stop her. Looking at her earnest expression, he couldn't help but laugh. "What are you doing here?"
Li Zhiyi pointed to the nearby neighborhood and said softly, "I'm tutoring over here. I just finished a session and wanted to buy something to eat. I have another class this afternoon."
"Let's go, don't just stand here." After paying, Chen Zhi pulled her outside. "Let's find a shady spot out there to sit for a bit."
There were a few tables and chairs under patio umbrellas outside the convenience store.
Chen Zhi munched on his popsicle, watching Li Zhiyi quietly taking tiny bites next to him.
He hadn't seen the girl in a while. She seemed to have lost a little weight, making her eyes look even larger. They were big and watery, and whenever she looked at him, it always made his heart melt.
"Is it tiring being a tutor?" Chen Zhi chewed on the popsicle stick. "Running back and forth in this sweltering heat."
Li Zhiyi shook her head. The loose hair on her forehead was slightly damp with sweat, clinging to her fair skin.
"It's not tiring," she said softly. "The child here is very obedient, and the parents pay well."
Chen Zhi sighed. "You're just too honest. Don't just save all the money you earn. Eat and drink what you should. Look at you, skinny as a bean sprout."
Li Zhiyi didn't say anything, just lowered her head and took a small bite of her popsicle.
After a moment, as if having made a huge decision, she put down her popsicle, hugged her canvas bag to her chest, and unzipped it.
Chen Zhi looked at her curiously. "What? You're going to treat me to a meal?"
Li Zhiyi didn't reply. Her hand fumbled around in her bag for a moment before pulling out a rectangular white box and gently pushing it in front of Chen Zhi.
Chen Zhi glanced at it.
An iPhone 12 Pro Max.
The popsicle almost fell out of Chen Zhi's mouth.
This thing cost at least ten thousand yuan.
To a rich woman like Pei Ningxue, this was just the cost of a meal.
But to Li Zhiyi...
Chen Zhi looked up, staring into Li Zhiyi's eyes, his tone instantly dropping. "Where did you get this?"
Startled by his fierce look, Li Zhiyi twisted her fingers together and whispered, "I... I bought it."
"Nonsense, of course I know you bought it," Chen Zhi said, pointing at the box. "I'm asking where you got the money. Have you been waking up at the crack of dawn and working late tutoring for the past month just to buy this?"
This ten thousand yuan was probably her entire summer's earnings, maybe even combined with her usual savings—all the money she had to her name.
Li Zhiyi lowered her head, her eyes slightly red.
"P-please don't be mad," she said, her voice trembling slightly. "I just wanted to get you a gift."
"Do I lack a phone?" Chen Zhi felt both angry and heartbroken. "I have hands and feet. Can't I buy what I want myself? Do I need you to save your food money to buy me this?"
He was genuinely a bit furious.
Li Zhiyi rarely spent much money normally, yet she had just bought him something so expensive.
"I know..." Li Zhiyi sniffled and finally looked up at him.
Her clear eyes were brimming with tears, yet she stubbornly refused to let them fall.
"I know you have money, and I know you don't need this."
"But... growing up, you've helped me so much. You tutored me, and you even gave me my computer..."
At this point, she paused. Her voice dropped even lower, carrying a hint of humble pleading.
"I didn't know what you wanted. I saw... I saw that everyone else likes this, so I bought it."
"Please accept it, okay? Otherwise... otherwise I'll feel awful."
Looking at the girl in front of him who was on the verge of tears, Chen Zhi felt an overwhelming sour ache in his heart.
How silly could she be.
How could there be such a silly girl in this world? Emptying out all her savings just to give a gift, and then having to beg the person to accept it.
Chen Zhi, oh Chen Zhi, what makes you so worthy?
You're dating Lin Wanwan while flirting with Pei Ningxue, and yet here is this silly girl pouring her heart out for you.
Chen Zhi took a deep breath, reached out, and picked up the phone from the table.
"Alright, I accept it."
The tears in Li Zhiyi's eyes finally wavered, revealing a trace of joy. "R-really?"
"Really." Chen Zhi slipped the phone into his pocket, then stood up and walked over to her.
Reaching out, he gently tucked a sweat-dampened strand of hair behind her ear.
"But we need to set some ground rules." Chen Zhi looked into her eyes.
"No more spending money recklessly next time. If I ever find out you've been living frugally just to buy something again, I'll smash this phone just to hear it crack. You hear me?" Chen Zhi said, deliberately sounding stern.
Li Zhiyi nodded obediently. "I hear you."
The atmosphere between them was perfect.
Just as Chen Zhi was about to lecture her a bit more, an extremely untimely voice suddenly rang out from nearby.
"Oh, if it isn't Chen Hansheng?"
Chen Zhi furrowed his brows. He didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.
It was Zhao Jin, the guy who hovered around Su Nuan like a fly back at the driving school.
Talk about bad luck.
Chen Zhi turned around and, sure enough, saw Zhao Jin standing not far away, holding two bottles of water and looking over with a mocking expression.
"What's the matter? Couldn't figure out how to drive, so you ran over here to pick up girls?" Zhao Jin's eyes were full of mockery. "Why don't you take a look in the mirror? You stall the car just trying to start it, and you're trying to date like a normal person?"
Chen Zhi was in a complicated mood right now and couldn't be bothered to pay attention to this clown.
He didn't want this idiot to ruin Li Zhiyi's mood, so he grabbed her wrist. "Let's go, I'll walk you to class."
However, Zhao Jin had no intention of letting go of this opportunity to humiliate the vocational college student.
He was just about to continue his mockery when his gaze swept over Li Zhiyi behind Chen Zhi, and he suddenly froze.
He hadn't seen her clearly from a distance, but now, looking from up close, Zhao Jin felt his breath catch for a second.
The girl was wearing a simple little white dress. Although her eyes were red as if she had just been crying, that face...
Pure, stunningly beautiful, and pitifully lovely.
Compared to her, Su Nuan, whom he had just been treating like a goddess, was simply a plain Jane!
Zhao Jin's eyes instantly turned green with envy.
Jealousy twisted his features.
Why?
Why did this country bumpkin, who couldn't even get into a university and had to go to a vocational school to learn computer repair, get to have such a beautiful girlfriend?
And looking at the situation, this girl was completely devoted to him?
It made no sense!
Sour jealousy bubbled up in Zhao Jin's heart. He took a few steps forward, directly blocking their path. Staring intently at Li Zhiyi, he said in an exaggerated tone:
"Beautiful, have you been tricked? This guy is just a punk going to a tech school, he has no future!"
Li Zhiyi was startled by the man who suddenly rushed up and instinctively shrank behind Chen Zhi.
Chen Zhi stopped walking and shielded Li Zhiyi behind him.
He looked at Zhao Jin, who was jumping around like a clown in front of him. His eyes, which had softened after receiving the gift, instantly turned piercingly cold.
"Get lost."
Chen Zhi spat out the words.
He was truly angry this time. Disgusting him at the driving school was one thing, but running out here to harass Li Zhiyi was crossing the line.
Zhao Jin froze for a moment, feeling a chill run down his spine at Chen Zhi's glare.
But on second thought, he was a top student at Peking University. How could he be scared by a vocational school student? Especially in front of a beautiful woman, he absolutely could not lose face!
"Watch your mouth!" Zhao Jin puffed out his chest and forced himself to raise his voice. "I'm just kindly warning this beauty! I'm afraid she'll be deceived by a piece of bottom-feeding social trash like you! Do you know who I am? I'm from Peking Uni..."
Smack!
A crisp sound rang out.
The half-eaten popsicle in Chen Zhi's hand was slapped directly onto Zhao Jin's proud designer T-shirt.
The sticky, sugary syrup instantly stained a large patch yellow.
"You..." Zhao Jin looked at the stain on his chest, completely dumbfounded.
"Who I am isn't important." Chen Zhi pulled a pack of tissues from his pocket, took one out, and wiped his hands.
"What's important is that you're in my way."
Chen Zhi crumpled the used tissue into a ball and flicked it casually, hitting Zhao Jin squarely on the forehead.
"A good dog doesn't block the road. Move."
More to come tonight.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
